Israel Fires Into Syria For The First Time Since 1973

An
Israeli mobile artillery unit drives through sandy terrain during
a military exercise in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on
September 19. Israeli troops fired warning shots into Syria on
Sunday, the Israeli military said in a statement, in what public
radio said was the first Israeli fire directed at the Syrian
military since the 1973 war.Jack
Guez/AFP/File

Israeli troops fired warning shots into Syria Sunday, the army
said in a statement, in what public radio said was the first
Israeli fire directed at the military in the Golan Heights area
since the 1973 war.

"A short while ago, a mortar shell hit an IDF post in the Golan
Heights adjacent to the Israel-Syria border, as part of the
internal conflict inside Syria. In response, IDF soldiers fired
warning shots towards Syrian areas," the army said in a
statement.

Military sources told AFP that the army used a single Tamuz
anti-tank missile, a weapon known for being highly accurate.

In addition, the army said in its statement it had filed a
complaint through the local UN forces, warning that "fire
emanating from Syria into Israel will not be tolerated and shall
be responded to with severity."

Earlier on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel
was "closely monitoring what is happening on our border with
Syria and there too we are ready for any development."

Sunday's cross-border fire was the latest in a string of
incidents in which fire has spilled from Syria across the
ceasefire line.

On Thursday, three stray mortar rounds from Syria hit the Golan,
which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and
annexed in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international
community.

And on Monday, an Israeli military vehicle patrolling the buffer
zone was hit by gunfire, with the army acknowledging it was
caused by "stray bullets."

No one was wounded, but the incident prompted an Israeli
complaint to the United Nations Security Council in which it
described the gunfire as a "grave violation" of a 1974 agreement
on security in the buffer zone.

Two days earlier, three Syrian tanks entered Bir Ajam village,
five kilometres (three miles) southeast of Quneitra, in the
demilitarised zone, sparking another Israeli complaint to the UN.

Since Israel and Syria signed the 1974 disengagement agreement, a
1,200-strong unarmed UN force has patrolled the buffer zone.